Building your Freelance Reputation

Freelancing entails posting one’s skills online, placing bids, and waiting for clients to come knocking. Commonly, the client no longer conducts lengthy interviews with the freelancer and instead only browses through the freelancer’s profile. On this occasion, you want to immediately capture the client’s attention by showing that you have a solid freelancing reputation. This is because no matter how talented and skilled you are, if employers don’t see evidence of who you claim to be, they will look somewhere else.

Building a reputation online is challenging and made more difficult by the fact that there are many freelancers ahead of you with years of experience. Fortunately, the online outsourcing world is fast-paced and the demand for skills is steadily growing. There is an endless stream of jobs bound to be taken, but will you get picked?

In order to begin building your freelance reputation, consider doing the following:

Produce only the best work – Make it your mantra to deliver only quality results on each and every project. Even though it’s tempting to only do what pleases the client, you also need to think of its impact on a global scale. Your client has tons of people connected to his network and once the project goes live, these people can look at what you’ve done. It will be privy to his friends, colleagues, Twitter followers, and essentially anyone who stumbles upon the project.

Whenever you work on something, keep in mind that someone else aside from your client is going to take a look at it so make every project the best you’ve ever done. The upside is that these people may also be your potential clients.

Strive for positive feedback – The process of coaxing a positive feedback out of a client may be difficult and lengthy. However, there is an easier way: practice goodwill. What really makes you remembered is not how fast you finished the project or how well you understood the instructions; it is how you acted during every encounter.

Clients may eventually forget how great the project was, but your attitude while doing it will remain and they will be more than happy to spread the word. If you are in a client’s go-to list, chances are, they will tell everyone to put you in their own lists too.

Get inspiration from criticism – It’s almost impossible to please every single person who criticizes your work especially if the project has long been over and client satisfaction has been met. Since you probably won’t re-do the entire project just because a critic expressed dislike, acknowledge the criticism and use it as inspiration to do better on your next project.

Build your profile and portfolio – Your profile and portfolio are your main selling points. You want both to be organized and effective enough for clients to be persuaded that you are the perfect person for the job.

For someone who is just starting out, organizing your profile page adds concrete to your reputation building. Every time you successfully finish a project, get an excerpt and add it to your list of accomplishments.

Include completed projects, samples of your work, and any other proof of your capabilities in your portfolio. Keep it organized and clutter-free for easy viewing as well.

Doing things with a desire to be the best and going the extra mile to ensure that work is above and beyond expectations are the ingredients to building a strong freelance reputation. Make it your goal to perfect your performance without the thought of prestige lingering at the back of your mind. Before you know it, you’re already a reputable and sought-after freelancer.